ty-two thousand were slain, and among them Gautier
himself, who fell pierced by seven mortal wounds. The remaining three
thousand retreated upon Civitot, where they entrenched themselves.

[Illustration: ISNIK.]

Disgusted as was Peter the Hermit at the excesses of the multitude, who,
at his call, had forsaken Europe, his heart was moved with grief and pity
at their misfortunes. All his former zeal revived: casting himself at the
feet of the Emperor Alexius, he implored him, with tears in his eyes, to
send relief to the few survivors at Civitot. The emperor consented, and a
force was sent, which arrived just in time to save them from destruction.
The Turks had beleaguered the place, and the Crusaders were reduced to the
last extremity. Negotiations were entered into, and the last three
thousand were conducted in safety to Constantinople. Alexius had suffered
too much by their former excesses to be very desirous of retaining them in
his capital: he therefore caused them all to be disarmed, and, furnishing
each with a sum of money, he sent them back to their own country.

While these events were taking place, fresh hordes were issuing from the
woods and wilds of Germany, all bent for the Holy Land. They were
commanded by a fanatical priest, named Gottschalk, who, like Gautier and
Peter the Hermit, took his way through Hungary. History is extremely
meagre in her details of the conduct and fate of this host, which amounted
to at least one hundred thousand men. Robbery and murder seem to have
journeyed with them, and the poor Hungarians were rendered almost
desperate by their numbers and rapacity. Karloman, the king of the
country, made a bold effort to get rid of them; for the resentment of his
people had arrived at such a height, that nothing short of the total
extermination of the Crusaders would satisfy them. Gottschalk had to pay
the penalty, not only for the ravages of his own bands, but for those of
the swarms that had come before him. He and his army were induced, by some
means or other, to lay down their arms: the savage Hungarians, seeing them
thus defenceless, set upon them, and slaughtered them in great numbers.
How many escaped their arrows we are not informed; but not one of them
reached Palestine.

Other swarms, under nameless leaders, issued from Germany and France, more
brutal and more frantic than any that had preceded them. Their fanaticism
surpassed by far the wildest freaks of the followers of the Herm